Book Review: Brendan Howe, The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia, Courtney Hillebrecht, Tyler R White and Patrice C McMahon (eds), State Responses to Human Security: At Home and Abroad
| Author | Suyani Indriastuti |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916667018 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsInternational Relations |
104 Political Studies Review 15 (1)
traditions extensively supported by both primary
and secondary sources. The re-establishment of
the Indian heritage of cultural philosophy and the
concept of dharma (i.e. the concept of Duty,
which is a fundamental moral principle from the
time of the Mahabharata) is the key component
of Datta-Ray’s study.
Pankaj Kumar
(Jawaharlal Nehru University)
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916667012
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The Protection and Promotion of Human
Security in East Asia by Brendan Howe.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 258pp.,
£57.50 (h/b), ISBN 9781137293640
State Responses to Human Security: At
Home and Abroad by Courtney Hillebrecht,
Tyler R White and Patrice C McMahon (eds).
Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. 256pp., £85.00 (h/b),
ISBN 9780415705530
The notion of human security has been evolv-
ing since the 1990s, but the taxonomy of human
security remains debatable among its propo-
nents, including at the elementary level of an
agreed definition of what it is. Different users
of the human security conception have inter-
preted it differently according to their own
objectives, cultures or interests. As a result,
there are different approaches to human secu-
rity, namely, the broad focus on freedom from
want and fear, which emphasises the impor-
tance of sustainable socio-economic develop-
ment, and the narrow approach focusing on
freedom from fear or protecting people from
immediate threats of violence or conflict. The
two books under review reflect the debate
between the broad and the narrow approach in
the human security conception.
The first book, The Protection and
Promotion of Human Security in East Asia by
Brendan Howe, adopts the broad approach to
human security (p. 16). It consists of 11 chap-
ters grouped into three parts concerning the
operationalisation of human security, case
studies and the different actors. By focusing on
both freedom from want and freedom from
fear, this book aims to ‘bridge divides between
theoretical and practical considerations of
human security and good governance’ (p. 12).
Howe comprehensively explains the practi-
cal considerations of human security from the
broad perspective of some Asian countries such
as North Korea, the Philippines (in particular
Mindanau), Laos, Myanmar and Timor Leste
(chapters 4–8). Accordingly, those countries
face human insecurity in terms of both freedom
from want and freedom from fear. The insuffi-
cient fulfilment of basic human needs is the
root of violence. However, the prioritisation of
freedom from fear alone by international organ-
isations and national governments leads to the
abandonment of the root problem concerning
freedom from want. Therefore, Howe suggests
implementing the latter in addition to the for-
mer to protect the people (p. 161).
In terms of the actors in human security
protection, however, this book gives only a
little portion of discussion to the role of
regional organisation such as the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Since
Southeast Asian countries are entering an era
of integration under ASEAN Communities, the
role of ASEAN increasingly affects the mem-
bers and their neighbours. Hence, it would
have been more valuable to expand the discus-
sion of ASEAN’s role in human security.
In contrast to the first book, the second book
entitled State Responses to Human Security: At
Home and Abroad is a collection of essays edited
by Hillebrecht, White and MacMahon concern-
ing the implementation of the narrow approach
to human security or the freedom from fear
(Neack, p. 174). Accordingly, human security is
‘at the intersection of security studies, political
violence, and human rights’ (Hillebrecht and
MacMahon, p. 7) and it focuses on ‘the popula-
tion and the degree to which it is protected from
violence’ (Albert and Hansen, p. 83).
This book, which considers the state to be the
main actor in achieving human security, is divided
into four sections and consists of 11 chapters. As
outlined in Part I, the authors aim to unpack the
differences in states’ responses to human security
threats. Selecting cases with different levels of
state power, the book argues that power asym-
metries and states’ perceptions of threats
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